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WWE NXT
Webcast } The Bright House Network |theme = "Wild and Young" by American Bang (Seasons 1–2, 4–5) "You Make The Rain Fall" by Kevin Rudolf "Welcome Home" by Coheed and Cambria (Season 6–present) |episodecount = 210 (as of February 26, 2014) |original run = February 23, 2010 – Present }} WWE NXT is a professional wrestling television program produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) which debuted on February 23, 2010. Described as a hybrid between reality television and WWE's scripted live event shows, the premise of the show follows select talent contracted to WWE's developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) in a competition to become WWE's next breakout star with the help of mentors from WWE's Raw and SmackDown brands. The show originally made its debut on Syfy in February 2010. Less than a month after its premiere, it was announced that WWE SmackDown would move from MyNetworkTV to Syfy in October. NXT aired its final episode on Syfy on September 28 to make way for SmackDown, and began airing as a webcast at WWE.com for visitors from the United States on October 5. Outside of the United States, the show is still televised. History On February 2, 2010, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon announced that ECW would be going off the air and would be replaced with a new weekly program in its slot that McMahon called "the next evolution of WWE; the next evolution of television history." It was later announced that ECW would air its final episode on February 16, 2010, and on the February 9, 2010 episode of ECW, the successor show's name was announced as WWE NXT. NXT began as a reality competition. From 2010–2012, the show consisted of pairing "Rookies" with WWE Superstars (known as "Pros"), with the pairs competing in challenges until there was one sole winner. The winners of the show were Wade Barrett (Season 1), Kaval (Season 2), Kaitlyn (Season 3) and Johnny Curtis (Season 4). Before season five ended, WWE revamped the show to make it a sports entertainment show, moved the tapings permanently to Florida, and changed the show's roster to feature more developmental wrestlers. Production NXT was taped in large venues before the WWE Smackdown tapings and used the universal WWE HD set from 2010–2012. When WWE revamped the show, they moved the tapings to Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida, with the venue known as Full Sail Live. WWE started taping NXT in Florida on May 17, 2012. NXT aired on Syfy from 2010-2011. In 2011, when SmackDown moved to Syfy, NXT moved to WWE.COM, and after Season 5, NXT stopped broadcasting in the US until September 2012 when WWE reached a deal with Hulu Plus, on which new episodes of NXT began airing September 26, 2012. Since February 27, 2014, WWE NXT has been streaming over the WWE Network every Thursday night at 9:00 ET/ 8:00 CT. On-air personalities Champions Authority Figures (*) On August 24, Maryse underwent surgery for an abdominal hernia and was on medical leave from WWE, therefore Maryse's role as co-host ended. She would later be released from WWE on October 28, 2011 and would not return to NXT. As of November 2011, there is no official co-host. Commentators (*) – Friday Night SmackDown play-by-play commentator and former NXT color commentator, Josh Mathews, was substituting for an absent Todd Grisham. This repeated on the November 16, 2011 edition of NXT, but this time, he was substituting for an absent Jack Korpela, who would later be released from his WWE contract. (**) – Matt Striker became the alternate color commentator on NXT beginning May 3, 2011 due to Regal's increased in-ring schedule (Regal would continue as commentator when he wasn't wrestling). This ended on the May 17, 2011 edition of NXT when Regal would return to the announce table as normal. (***) – Michael Cole served as special guest color commentator on NXT for the May 31, 2011 broadcast substituting for an absent William Regal. Cole would also substitute for Regal again on commentary on the September 13, 2011 broadcast due to Regal and Striker competing in a match that night. (****) – Matt Striker and Josh Mathews were guest commentators on NXT for the November 9, 2011 broadcast substituting for the absent William Regal and Jack Korpela. Striker and Mathews returned to commentary the following 2 weeks because Jack Korpela's contract with the WWE had expired and he opted not to renew. (*****) – Matt Striker and William Regal commentated the November 23, 2011 edition of NXT, due to Mathews being absent. (******) - Josh Matthews was unavailable to call the April 24, 2012 edition of NXT Redemption after Brock Lesnar attacked him in a backstage segment on Raw Ring announcers (*) If Chimel was absent from the NXT/Smackdown tapings, he would have been substituted as ring announcer by RAW's Justin Roberts or WWE Superstars' Eden Stiles, who would also serve as Smackdown's ring announcer for that week's episode. Effective December 8, 2011, Chimel has been replaced by Lilian Garcia on SmackDown and Eden Stiles has picked up Chimel's NXT announcing duties until December 13, 2011. On December 21, prior to NXT to be uploaded on WWE.com, Stiles would announce that she asked for her release from WWE a day after her final Superstars and NXT appearances have been recorded. See also *NXT Brand Roster External links * NXT Official Website Category:Extreme Championship Wrestling Category:World Wrestling Entertainment